Little Snitch, the popular network utility by Objective Development Software Gmbh, has been updated to version 3.5, its nightly build number 4226, a 22.2 megabyte download adding the following fixes and changes:
– Little Snitch menubar item no longer occupies space when disabled.

– Added support for showing iOS App Extension icons.

– Improved handling of via connections:
Connection alerts now show a cancel button if either the parent or the via process is terminated.

Until Quit rules are now valid until both the parent process and via process have terminated.

OS X Yosemite changed how incoming ssh connections are handled. Incoming connections are no longer handled by sshd directly but instead by launchd. On OS X Yosemite, this version of Little Snitch automatically converts existing rules to ensure incoming SSH connections work as expected.

Not that the competition between Apple and Microsoft will ever truly go away, but this could herald in slightly better relations between the two companies, especially given how long it took Microsoft Office to come to iOS.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Microsoft has released a new series of tools for developers looking to improve integration between their apps and the company’s Office 365 service. For iOS users and developers, the main point of interest will be the new 365 APIs for mail, files, calendar, and contacts. There is currently more than 400 petabytes of data stored via Office 365, and these news tools will allow developers to access that information from their own apps.

These API’s will provide better options for connecting apps to users who need to use Office 365. Microsoft hopes to see travel reservation apps that connect to your 365 calendar and sales automation apps that integrate with your mail and files to save and send receipts.

Cook referred to recent revelations that Merchant Consumer Exchange retailers like Rite Aid and CVS are now blocking Apple Pay, characterizing the situation as a “skirmish” that will ultimately be decided by consumers “over the long arc of time.”

Call it a trade blockade of sorts, but you might not be able to use Apple Pay to purchase items at CVS or Rite Aid for a while.

Per the New York Times and 9to5Mac, Rite Aid has joined CVS in disabling Apple Pay as a payment method in its stores. Like CVS, Rite Aid is a member of the Merchant Customer eXchange (MCX) consortium promoting a rival mobile payment service, CurrentC.

Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets.

As with CVS, Apple Pay initially worked in Rite Aid stores, indicating that the company has made a deliberate decision to switch off support.

While Apple has declined to comment, MasterCard said that it was the wrong decision.

“We think consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard.

Apple will be switching off SSL 3.0 support in favor of the more secure transport layer security (TSL) protocol on Wednesday, Oct. 29, noting developers will have to build in support by that time to ensure uninterrupted push notification service continues.

Apps currently using both SSL 3.0 and TSL will not be affected by the change, but those using just SSL 3.0 will need to be updated.

Apple has disabled SSL 3.0 on the Provider Communication interface in the developer environment, offering developers a way to check their apps for compatibility. More information is available through Apple’s Developer Portal.

Along with the release of its OS X 10.10 Yosemite operating system yesterday, Apple also turned loose iTunes 12.0.1 to the public.

The new version, a 212 megabyte download, now features a red icon, is “designed for OS X Yosemite” and according to AppleInsider, along with the usual performance boosts and bug fixes, brings a redesigned interface with translucent elements borrowed from Yosemite.

In addition, users can now activate Family Sharing, a feature that lets customers share music, e-book and app purchases with up to five family members. Family Sharing was introduced with iOS 8 and is now available through Yosemite.

Per the mighty iMore, Apple announced that it will release iOS 8.1, with full support for Apple Pay and features such as the return of the Camera Roll and the iCloud Photo Library.

After iOS 8 launched in September, many users were confused about the disappearance of the traditional Camera Roll and Photo Stream interfaces. Although photos weren’t gone, and simply moved to the collections tab, it seems as if Apple is willing to bring them back. Part of this could be due to the fact of making it easier to differentiate what photos and videos are actually using physical storage and what are using iCloud Photo Library storage, which will also come out of beta as of iOS 8.1. That means that whatever iCloud storage plan you choose, you can use as much or as little as you’d like to offload photos and videos, in turn freeing up actual physical storage.

Over at its media event, Apple announced that OS X 10.10 Yosemite, its free next-generation operating system, will arrive on the Mac App Store today. The new version includes a new design that’s more contiguous with iOS 8 as well as features like Continuity and Handoff. Apple has also released a redesigned version of its iWork suite, which will be available as a free download.

Apple software chief Craig Federighi demonstrated many of the new features of Yosemite at a media event in Cupertino, California today, chief among them the new Continuity and Handoff features, which allow users to seamlessly transition between their Mac and their iOS devices.

The next-gen iPad information you wanted came a bit ahead of schedule.

According to The Verge and 9to5Mac, Apple accidentally revealed both of its new iPads: the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 on its web site. An official user guide for iOS 8 in the iTunes Store has apparently had its screenshots updated ahead of schedule; both new iPads are pictured, and the images reveal each will have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Aside from the addition of Touch ID, it seems these latest iPads will look nearly identical to their predecessors. 9to5Mac first spotted the premature iPad screenshots. The full-resolution image is still sitting on Apple’s servers.

It’s expected that Apple will improve the performance of each iPad with the help of an updated chipset, likely the iPhone 6’s A8 or a slightly more powerful A8X processor. What’s not clear is whether the iPad mini 3 will match the larger iPad Air 2 spec for spec. Last year, Apple essentially put both tablets on equal footing, but the company may revise its strategy to put more room between them. The user guide hints that one new feature for iPads — burst photography mode — will be available on the iPad Air 2 with no mention of the mini 3.

Per iMore, IDG, the parent company of both Macworld magazine and the Macworld/iWorld conferences, announced on Tuesday that the conference is “going on hiatus”, and that the 2015 event will not happen. Macworld/iWorld has struggled in recent years with the loss of Apple as a keynote partner, with the company around which the conference revolved opting to focus more on their own events and putting significant capital into WWDC.

IDG’s MacIT Mac-focused enterprise technology conference will continue, but the larger Macworld/iWorld is no more. IDG is likely working to rework the conference, but that it’s going on hiatus doesn’t bode well for Macworld/iWorld’s future. It’s a blow to have the January-duo of CES and Macworld be no more, although it’s unlikely that this will be a significant impediment to the OS X and iOS developer communities.